Describes four measures of test unreliability that quantify effects of question selection and guessing, both separately and together--three chosen for immediacy and one for greater mathematical elegance. Quantifies their dependence on test length and number of answer options per question. Concludes that many multiple choice tests are unreliable…

A taxonomy of 43 rules for writing multiple-choice test items is presented, based on a consensus of 46 textbooks. These guidelines are presented as complete and authoritative, with solid consensus apparent for 33 of the rules. Four rules lack consensus, and 5 rules were cited fewer than 10 times. (SLD)

An achievement test for the secondary school vocational electricity programs in South Carolina was constructed by a research coordinating unit (RCU) project. A trade and industrial supervisor and consultant, three electricity instructors, and four industry representatives comprised an advisory committee that participated in its development. Three…